to see this, but
the level of the river was daily rising, and the time of tiresome
expectation was certainly relieved by many amusing, and a few awkward
incidents.

Having once been informed of my plans, the Jong Pen of Taklakot in Tibet
was kept fully acquainted with my movements. His spies went daily
backwards and forwards with details about me. This my friends confided
to me regularly. One of these emissaries, a stalwart Tibetan, more daring
than the rest, actually had the impudence to enter my room, and to
address me in a boisterous tone of voice. At first I treated him kindly,
but he became more and more arrogant, and informed me, before several
frightened Shokas to whom he was showing off, that the British soil I was
standing on was Tibetan property. The British, he said, were usurpers and
only there on sufferance. He declared that the English were cowards and
afraid of the Tibetans, even if they oppressed the Shokas.

This remark was too much for me, and it might anyhow have been unwise to
allow it to pass unchallenged. Throwing myself on him, I grabbed him by
his pigtail and landed in his face a number of blows straight from the
shoulder. When I let him go, he threw himself down crying, and implored
my pardon. Once and for all to disillusion the Tibetan on one or two
points, I made him lick my shoes clean with his tongue, in the presence
of the assembled Shokas. This done, he tried to scamper away, but I
caught him once more by his pigtail, and kicked him down the front steps
which he had dared to come up unasked.

Chanden Sing happened to be basking in the sun at the foot, and seeing
the hated foreigner make so contemptible an exit, leapt on him like a
cat. He had heard me say, "Ye admi bura crab!" ("That man is very bad.")
That was enough for him, and before the Tibetan had regained his feet, my
bearer covered his angular features with a perfect shower of blows. In
the excitement of the moment, Chanden Sing, thinking himself quite the
hero, began even to shy huge stones at his terror-stricken victim, and at
last, getting hold of his pigtail, to drag him round the yard--until I
interfered and stopped the sport.

[Illustration: CHANDEN SING AND THE DAKU ROLLING UP MY BEDDING]

[10] The ceilings of Shoka houses are plastered with mud.

[11] N.B. The Lippu Pass, the lowest of all, may be crossed, with
difficulty, nearly all the year round.

CHAPTER XVI

The _Rambang_--Shoka music--Love-songs-